HOCKEY GM ADVICE

The Montreal Canadiens officially failed to sell out the Bell Centre for the first time in 583 games. Thats 14 years that the Canadiens sold out their arena.

Are Canadiens fans finally sick of seeing the direction their team is heading in? The team has started off better than most would have expected going 3-1-1 led by new Canadien Tomas Tatar.

But do fans know that the inevitable will happen and this team will fall apart eventually this season? The fact might be simple the team is just not exciting to watch. The past few years they have made some questionable moves over the past few years, trading away fan favourite P.K Subban, trading star prospect Mikhail Sergachev, recently trading away drafted center Alex Galchenyuk and former Captain Max Pacioretty.

And the only trade that didnt cause an uproar with the fans was the Pacioretty trade, which Montreal actually got fair value for bringing in Tatar (who is currently outscoring Pacioretty), former first round pick/prospect Nick Suzuki and a 2nd round pick.

Montreal has never committed to a full rebuild before because they thought the fans would not accept it, would not accept not being competitive for a few seasons and would stop watching. Well, apparently they are beginning to stop watching now, so that means, time to enter the rebuild! Their are enough veteran assets on this team that can be traded that will bring back enough assets to make a rebuild quick and painless.

Key assets they can trade are: Carey Price, Shea Weber & Tomas Tatar.

They have a great core already with: Drouin, Gallagher, Domi, Lehkonen, Danault, Peca, Hudon, Armia, Kotkaniemi, Juulsen & Mete. With Lindgren sitting in the minors waiting for his chance to take the reins.

Thats 3 lines of young forwards and a top pairing of 2 defencemen under the age of 21.

Edmonton is in need of some additional scoring as its all coming currently from McDavid. Tatar is a proven 20+ goal scorer with the skill to be a 30 goal scorer. He also has good speed to keep up with McDavid. Oilers send back a player whos salary they want to shed.

Weber + Armia to Tampa Bay: For Killorn, Callahan + Sergachev.

(Reasoning)

Weber when healthy is an all-star defencemen. Who is one of the best defencemen in the league and is still a top 2 pairing. Tampa Bay is in Win NOW mode with their team and Weber can put them there. They will need to pay players like Point soon and he will be commanding top dollar, so shedding the contracts of Callahan and Killorn will give them that flexibility but at the expense of Sergachev, who currently does not have a spot in the top 4 anyways. Montreal receiving their young defencemen back who they wrongfully traded.

Price to St.Louis: Jake Allen, Jay Bouwmeester + Jordan Kyrou.

(Reasoning)

The Blues, just like Tampa after adding Oreilly and Bozak this offseason are in Win NOW mode and they cannot win with Allen as streaky as he is. And as bad as last season was for Price, he is still the best goalie in the NHL. And while losing Bouwmeester will hurt the Blues, they have young defencemen such as Schmaltz and Dunn waiting to play a bigger role. And if the Canadiens do not resign him, the Blues can resign him in the offseason.

What the team could look like after the trade:

Drouin - Danault - Gallagher

Kyrou - Domi - Lehkonen

Killorn - Kotkaniemi - Byron

Lucic - Plekanec - Callahan

Leaving Hudon + Peca expendable at additional forwards, and having the option of flipping Killorn and trading Byron.